The heart-tugging reunion in The Kid (1921) played between Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp and his “adopted” son (Jackie Coogan) remains one of the most emotionally charged scenes in all of film history. Remarkably, the setting for this iconic scene remains standing, and is passed unknowingly by hundreds of tourists every day. As shown here, the reunion took place on Olvera Street, a colorful Mexican marketplace and cultural center, just north of the Plaza de Los Angeles, that has been a top downtown tourist spot for over 80 years.

Originally named Wine Street, Olvera Street was renamed in honor of Judge Augustin Olvera, a signatory to the Mexican surrender to the United States in January 1847, and later the first Superior Court Judge of Los Angeles County. The street is home to the oldest building in town, the Avila Adobe, built in 1818, and the Pelanconi House, the oldest brick house in the city, dating from 1855. Olvera Street runs south towards the Plaza de Los Angeles, where Felipe de Neve and a band of settlers founded the city on September 4, 1781. Other city landmarks surround the Plaza, including the Plaza Fire Station, built in 1884, which has appeared both in Buster Keaton’s The Goat (1921) and the contemporary television crime drama Bones.

Matching views looking south down Olvera Street towards the trees standing in the Plaza de Los Angeles. City Hall, towering in the background, was completed in 1928. The left balcony (to the left of Charlie) is the back of the Sepulveda House (1887), today home to the El Pueblo Visitors Center. The center balcony (appearing above Charlie’s head) is the Pelanconi House. Built around 1855–87, it is the oldest brick building in the city. Today it is home to the La Golondrina Cafe, founded by Consuelo Castilo de Bonzo, which has operated there since the opening of Olvera Street in 1930. Photo courtesy Dr. Lisa Stein Haven.

Chaplin fashioned his tenement set for his earlier short film Easy Street (1917) after Methley Street, in his boyhood London neighborhood Lambeth. To add greater realism, he also filmed at the Plaza de Los Angeles (below), and at the same Olvera Street spot where he filmed The Kid.

In 1928, when civic leader Christine Sterling learned that the Avila Adobe was set to be demolished, she rallied a campaign to restore the building, while converting Olvera Street into a Mexican cultural center. Olvera Street opened on Easter Sunday, 1930, and has been a popular tourist destination ever since.

The box marks the fire station appearing in The Goat and in Bones, mentioned above, and the oval marks where Chaplin filmed The Kid. (c) 2012 Microsoft Corporation, Pictometry Bird’s Eye (c) 2012 Pictometry International Corp.

Gerald Smith, Bonnie McCourt, and David Totheroh, the grandson of Chaplin’s cameraman Rollie Totheroh, discovered this location, in part, from clues revealed during a 1964 family interview with the senior Totheroh. To read more about The Kid and Easy Street, check out my book Silent Traces.

What a great find. Just one more reason to take visitors down to Olvera Street! Even if they don’t watch silent movies, they probably have seen that iconic scene and would be able to appreciate the connection to Chaplin.

I personally like the gifs provided they provide a smooth transition between then and now.
I’m visiting my family to present them with my son, and am taking the opportunity of taking back my copy of Silent Traces. It encouraged me to soldier on with my own site, Traces of Evil (a name chosen before I encountered your book!)